Trade Review – Sweet Tooth vol. 1

Vertigo puts out some of the best work in the comics world. The best thing about that particular imprint is the fact that they look at their works in a way that doesn’t mesh with the rest of the books being published elsewhere. Comic books seemingly follow a pattern across the board in order to garner mainstream acceptance. The fact is that books that aren’t standard superhero fare don’t really find a huge audience on a monthly basis. They garner tons of critical acclaim, but the average comic fan tends to skip over them. The people who read books like Sweet Tooth tend to only read books like Sweet Tooth, and every time they recommend a book like this to your everyday comic fan, they get brushed aside as elitists. I know that seems like a generalization, but I’ve been working in a comic shop since 2006 and its a sort of sad truth.

Sweet Tooth is another home run for the imprint, which has been on a roll lately with other series like THE UNWRITTEN, DAYTRIPPER, and JOE THE BARBARIAN. The book revolves around a “hybrid” child named Gus who because of his unique physiology is immune to a disease that has ravaged the majority of the human population. It’s a high concept story told with a minimalist zeal by Jeff Lemire that draws the reader in through mystery in the same way that LOST did all those years ago, asking questions and driving the reader forward in the hopes of getting some sort of satisfaction. It’s graphic storytelling at its finest.

The first trade, at $9.99 is well worth picking up. It’ll suck you in and leave you wanting more, which is sort of a bad thing if you have to wait for the next trade considering the epic cliffhanger the first collection ends with. Seriously, I’m considering picking up the issues of this one.